Social control theory proposed that our social relationships serve a regulatory function by discouraging us from engaging in deviant or risky behaviors. Applied to self-care, social control should promote health and longevity by encouraging engagement in healthy behaviors and avoidance of unhealthy behaviors. The goal of this project is to investigate the ways in which social control processes are associated with self-care in a sample of older adults. The aspect of self-care which will be investigated is engagement in health related behaviors such as exercise and appropriate medication use. The proposed research has three goals and will serve as the basis for future research on interventions to enhance self-care in older adults. The first goal is to develop reliable and valid measures of social control relevant to self-care which can be used in future research. The second goal is to investigate the ways in which social control processes within close relationships are associated with self-care in a sample of 2700 older men and women. A mediation model will be tested in which the associations between social control and self-care in older adults are expected to be mediated by emotional responses to the social control. Differences in the social control of health behaviors by various types of social ties will be investigated. The third goal is to empirically distinguish social control from other functions of social relationships, such as social support and companionship. Participants in this study will complete various measures of social control, social support, psychological well-being, self-care, and health status. In addition, reporter of the older adults' receipt of social control and engagement in self-care will be obtained from individuals who are identified by the participants as their primary social control agent.